This year’s fall carnival during homecoming week has many new booths from several clubs including food and fun activities.
“We’re doing strawberries with Dubai chocolate,” president of the Key Club Hanna Nguyen said. “It’s basically the Dubai chocolate that’s trending right now, and we wanted to incorporate that for carnival, so that way we can make a lot of sales.”
The typical Dubai chocolate is a chocolate shell, with a pistachio cream on the inside, but the Key Club’s version has a unique spin on the dessert.
“It’s going to be in cups, and we’re going to cut up the strawberries [and] layer the chocolate and the Dubai chocolate filling on top,” Nguyen said. “We got our inspiration mostly on social media since it’s trending on TikTok, and we got the recipe on there as well.”
Other clubs are also doing dessert-like foods, like the French Club and the French Honor Society (FHS).
“For the carnival, we make crepes and French toast,” president of the French Club and FHS Thomas O’Bannon said. “Crepes have been a long standing tradition, and last year we started making French toast as well to further the French theme and branding.”
While the menu has changed, the focus on highlighting French culture remains a priority.
“[French Club has been selling sweets] since before I was here – probably like 10 years, if not more,” O’Bannon said. “They used to make brownies, but we didn’t feel that was French enough, so we started making French toast last year.”
As for prices of the food, the French Club has chosen to go on the cheaper side: with two tickets per French toast and three tickets per crepe. Despite keeping prices low, the price of materials has to be considered.
“We asked for about 100 bucks from StuCo to buy butter and eggs,” O’Bannon said. “The rest we get through donations from the members”
Asides from food items, several clubs plan on hosting activities, like the Dungeons and Dragons, D&D, Club.
“It’ll be our second year doing it,” vice president of the D&D club Julie Lushbaugh said. “We have foam swords, and we have a little sword fighting arena, and the winner usually gets some candy; like dum dums or [something] along those lines.”
The sword fighting arena falls in line with the common themes of the game, reflecting the spirit of the club.
“We chose sword fighting because combat is in Dungeons and Dragons, so [it] kind of represents our group a little bit,” Lushbaugh said.
The event will also include contributions from the different grade level class officers, like the Class of 2026.
“We are partnering with Cinnaholic. It’s like asweet shop,” president of the Class of 2026 Nick Hartmann said. “The store is on the Grand Parkway, and we are buying their sweet rolls.”
Besides creating a fun-filled Friday after the homecoming game, the carnival is creating meaningful memories.
“I’m really looking forward to this new chocolate Key Club is serving this year because it’s a very interesting thing to try, especially at carnival,” junior Garrett Torres said. “My favorite booth last year was the pizza booth. It wasn’t special, it was just pizza, but waiting with my friends [and] buying pizza together was a very fun and special moment to me that will make me go back again this year.”
